Cut off from the world: A terrible tale of survival

It all happened so quickly, but that’s how they say these things always go. One minute everything is fine, and the next your life is more messed up than a teenager’s room.

It had been a fairly normal (for me) weekend that had followed a fairly normal (for me) week. As I recall, I had been an exemplary employee at work, never really getting distracted, taking a break or talking to my co-workers about sports or anything unrelated to my job. And then on the weekend, I was a star at my rec soccer game (of course, stars occasionally crash and burn) and I got to do a skit in church that had the congregation laughing while they still received the important message that I worked so hard to convey (that I think I’m funny).

Anyway, everything was fine, and but in the blink of an eye, my life changed faster than a stoplight when I am late to work. Now I have been cut off from the world, left by the side of the highway like some paper cups and string.

The details don’t matter and they are too difficult to type without spelling errors, but trust me, the experience has been eye opening and I knew I had to somehow tell my story. Somehow, I will get back to the world of today. I have a family to think about, after all.

What must they be thinking?

What if they need me? I have no way to contact them to tell them what happened. They probably think I am out doing something like climbing a mountain, helping to deliver baby lions or writing a hit song and that I am just too busy being heroic to get back to them.

Come to think of it, though, what will they really need me to do anyway? Catch spiders in the house? Open pickle jars? Constantly make sure the stove is off?

And as a close second to reaching out to my family and friends, how will I find out the sports scores? The NBA playoffs just started! This really is an emergency now. And what about the daily baseball box scores filled with statistics that I study even though I don’t understand many of them.

Not to mention that this time of year there is the endless boring and useless coverage of the NFL draft from “experts” who make predictions that no one ever checks to see if they came out true or not. How will I survive without this information? I was counting on reading it or listening to it online while I was at work!

Oh no! What about all of my friends online? How will I keep up with what they are cooking for dinner, learn about their political rants or find out what type of Scooby Doo character they would be in the latest online quiz?

Day 2

The realization of my situation is starting to set in. I have no way to find the directions to get back, no way of knowing what time it is and soon I will have no way to be sure about what day it is.

I am walking around in darkness now part of the time, both literally and figuratively. I miss a lot of things. I miss the music. I miss the voices. I miss the everyday sounds and vibrations of society that we all take for granted.

I worry about my responsibilities and I worry about my friends. I worry about everything, including if I can make it back. Along the same lines, if I do make it back, how will the world react? Has everything passed me by? Will I be accepted once again? Was I ever really accepted before?

At the same time, I do feel like a little weight has been lifted off of me. My step is a little lighter and part of me is enjoying this very different world.

This experience has given me time to ponder some deep philosophical thoughts, but mostly I am meticulously planning NFL mock drafts in my spare time. That mock trade of sixth round picks between the Panthers and Browns has me perplexed. I just don’t know if it makes sense or not. But does anything make sense in this new world I am living in? Or does everything make even more sense than ever before? These are the types of wordy and pretentious questions that fill the inner confines of my mind, deep in the recesses of my imagination, far past where any ordinary sentence should have been completed.

Day 3

I am starting to notice more of the world around me. I feel calmer. I don’t feel the sudden alerts or daily alarms of today’s world anymore.

I am still trying to get back to where I was, but I am lost. I used to constantly feel charged up knowing that I had life in the palm of my hand, sometimes even in my back pocket, and now that is all gone.

I worry about the world, and I worry about my family and friends, but I must trust that they are all right.

Trust is a big thing in this new world. I didn’t always trust the messages I received from the world before, but now I listen to the world more openly. I miss the smiling faces and humor of the world, but I don’t miss the negativity that the world used to send out like a virus.

I feel like I am finally getting to know the real me, and my real voice is starting to emerge.

Ironically, by being cut off from the world, I now feel that I have a better understanding of the world.

I see now that all of this has been positive. It has changed the way I think, the way I feel about the world and the way I am going to set up my next NFL mock draft.

My eyes have been opened and I am thankful.

Day 4

My new phone finally got here! Whew!

That was awful not having a phone for three days. Forget all of that stuff I said before.

I hate living without a phone. It felt like I was a caveman, a whiney and pretentious caveman, but a caveman nonetheless.

And trust me, you’d never want to live in a cave, the cell phone reception there is terrible.